ZONDERVAN

God Has a Name

Copyright 2017 by John Mark Comer
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
ISBN 978-0-310-35030-9 (audio)
ISBN 978-0-310-34424-7 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Comer, John Mark, 1980- author.
Title: God has a name / John Mark Comer.
Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan, [2017] | Includes bibliographic references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016040702 | ISBN 9780310344209 (softcover)
Subjects: LCSH: GodNameBiblical teaching.
Classification: LCC BT180.N2 C66 2017 | DCC 231dc23 LC record available at https://lcnn.loc.gov/2016040702
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Design: Ryan Wesley Peterson
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First Printing January 2017 / Printed in the United States of America

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The path
Exodus 34v47013
Prologue: The God on top of the mountain019
1. Yahweh One simple idea that could radically
alter how you relate to God: a name 041
2. Yahweh Why does God need a name in
the first place? God and the gods 075
3. Compassionate and gracious God as Father and Mother,
and his baseline emotion toward you: mercy 125
4. Slow to anger Why we actually crave the wrath of God 155
5. Abounding in love and faithfulness Long obedience in
the same direction in an age of instant gratification 191
6. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished The God
who just wont stop until youre completely free 219
Epilogue: Jealous255
Thanks263
Notes265
About the author281

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Chapter 1

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The Lord [Yahweh], the Lord

[Yahweh], the compassionate
and gracious God, slow to
anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love
to thousands, and forgiving
wickedness, rebellion and
sin. Yet he does not leave
the guilty unpunished; he
punishes the children and
their children for the sin
of the parents to the third
and fourth generation.

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One simple idea

that could radically
alter how you relate
to God: a name

So God has a name.

And just to clarify, its not God.
Its Yahweh.
That might sound unimportant, like its just semantics. Trust me,
its not. The fact that God has a name is way more important than
most of us realize. I would argue it has the potential to radically
alter the way we relate to God.

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I mean, Yahweh.
But first, a little backstory...
In ancient writings like the Bible, a name was way more than a
label you used to make a dinner reservation or sign up for a spin
class or file your taxes with the IRS.
Your name was your identity, your destiny, the truth hidden in the
marrow of your bones. It was a one-word moniker for the truest
thing about youyour inner essence. Your inner Tom-ness or
Ruth-ness.
One Old Testament scholar writes, In the world of the Hebrew
Scriptures a personal name was often thought to indicate something essential about the bearers identity, origin, birth circumstances,
or the divine purpose that the bearer was intended to fulfill.1
Names are revelatory of the nature of a person.
Think of the story of Abraham. Originally, he is just called Abram.
But then Yahweh makes him a promise: I have made you a father
of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of
you, and kings will come from you.2
And then God renames him
from Abram
to Abraham.

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Now, look at this.

Abram means exalted father.
Abraham means father of many nations.
Its more than a new label. Its a new identity, a new destiny.
And its not just Abram/ham. Think of his son Isaac. Isaac means
laughter. When his mom, Sarah, heard that she would have a son
in her old age, it was so preposterous that she started to laugh.
So when Sarah finally gave birth to the miracle child, Abraham
named him Laughter.
Or think of Isaacs son Jacob. Jacob means heel grabber, a
euphemism for a liar and a cheat. And his biography is exactly
thatone con after another. Until an odd story where he wrestles
with God and says, I will not let you go unless you bless me.3
Then God renames him, from Jacob to Israel, which means he
struggles with God. From then on, hes a changed man.
Is this coming into focus for you? Getting clearer? Names were
way more than labels to pick up your coffee at the end of the bar.
Names were your autobiography in one word.
So when Moses is on Mount Sinai, asking to see Gods glory and
instead Yahweh says, I will proclaim my name, the Lord [Yahweh],
in your presence,4 its an incredibly weighty and significant
moment. God is saying that hell reveal his identity to Moses. Hell
let Moses in on his inner God-ness, the deepest reality of his being.

Yahweh

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And this climactic moment of revelation doesnt come out of

nowhere. Its the apex of a long, drawn-out story thats been gathering motion and speed ever since the opening page of the Bible.

TWO: Stories
Lets take a few minutes and trace this story line through the
Scriptures...
In the first line of Genesis, we read, In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
Before there was time and space and Adam and Eve and sex and
ice cream and New York City and Instagram, there was a God
who was.
But so far in the story, this mysterious Creator-of-everything
doesnt have a name. Later in Genesis, the Creator comes to
Abram. He calls him to abandon the worship of his Mesopotamian
gods and to go a new land. To pack up the U-Haul and head
south on I-5, with no clue where hes going. A gigantic leap of faith.
Abram goes.
And becomes Abraham.
Abrahams relationship with the Creator is stunning. So stunning
that three of the major world religions trace their roots back to

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Abrahams encounter with God.5 But even Abraham doesnt ever

learn Gods name.
When God comes to Abraham, he says, I am God Almighty.6
In the original language, its, I am El Shaddai.
El was the Canaanite word for the king of the gods.
The Creator calls himself El Shaddai, which is a way of saying, Im
like El, but Im so much more.
In other places, God calls himself El Elyon (God Most High)7 or
El Olam (God Everlasting),8 to put it in language that would make
sense to Abraham and his world.
Usually, hes just called the God of Abraham.
Which god?
The god my dad worshiped.
Oh, that one.
All that changes when we get to Moses. In one of the best-known
stories in the Bible, the Creator calls to Moses out of a bush on
fire in the blistering heat of the Sinai Peninsula. Moses was a
Hebrewone of the descendants of Abraham. And by this point
in the story, the Hebrews were in a bad spotin slavery in Egypt,
the global military superpower of the day.

Yahweh

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So the Creator comes to Moses and says, I am the God of your

father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob.9
Basically, Im your dads god.
Then God and Moses get into a conversation. And yes, you
heard me righta conversation. The first of many. God tells
Moses that he sees the injustice, the oppression of Israel. Hes
ready to do something about it. He wants Moses to lead them
out of slavery.
To which Moses basically responds, Waitwhat?!
But after God talks Moses into it (God can be pretty convincing),
Moses wants to know what he should tell the Israelites when
they ask him about this God. Apparently going back to them and
saying my dads God wants to set you free just wont cut it.
And Moses question is fascinating. In Hebrew, its mah shemo?
And its translated, What is his name?10
But if you were an ancient Hebrew reader, your ears would perk
up right here. Its different from the typical way you would have
asked someone their name. If you lived in a Hebrew refugee
camp in 1500 BC, you would walk up to a stranger and ask, Miy
shimka? which is more literally, Who is your name?11
But thats not what Moses asks. He asks, Mah shemo?

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And as we all know, the difference between a miy shimka? and a

mah shemo? is legendary.
Mah shemo? is more like, What is the meaning of your name?
Or, What is the significance of your name? Or, What makes
you... you?
Moses isnt just asking for a label like Bob or Hank or Lazer. (I
actually know a kid named Lazer. How cool is that?) Hes asking
the Creator God, Who are you? What are you like? Tell me about
your character.
And thats when the Creator speaks his name. For the first time.
Ever. I imagine a tremor in the ground under Moses feet...
I am who I am.
In Hebrew, its ehyeh-asher-ehyeh.
One of the ways to translate this Hebrew phrase is whatever I
am, I will be. Meaning, whatever this God is like, hes that way
consistently. Hes unshifting, stable, 24/7.
So, for example, if God is compassionate, then hes compassionate all the time.
If God is gracious, then hes gracious all the time.
If hes slow to anger, then hes slow to anger all the time.

Yahweh

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Have you ever thought you knew somebody really well? Trusted
them deeply? Thought they were a stand-up person, and then
you get the email, the phone call, the knock at the door, and you
discover a shocking double life hidden in the shadows?
Actually, your friend is wanted by the police.
Actually, the story she fed you is a lie.
Actually, your husband is a cheater.
Gods not like that. Theres no facade. No once you actually get
to know him. Hes true to his character. This is a God you can
rely on.
So God tells Moses his name and then tells him to go back to
Egypt and convey to the Hebrews the following:
Say to the Israelites, The Lord [Yahweh], the God of your
fathersthe God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacobhas sent me to you.
This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.12
For those of you thinking, Wait, Im confused. Why is God called
Yahweh here? I thought his name was I am who I am...
Okay, stay with me, this next part is a little technical. Okay, its

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really technical. But strap in tight, because theres a huge payoff if

you can survive the next page or two...
In ancient Hebrew, there were no vowels in the written language.
That sounds crazy, but imagine a world with no computers or even
paper and pens. A world where you had to carve every letter into
clay or stone. Writing was all about economy. And writing with no
vowels actually works pretty well.
Imagine if I wrote, Ths s sntnc.
Can you see it?
Yeah...
Well done.
It says, This is a sentence.
Thats what reading ancient Hebrew is like.
(Some of you are thinking, I never want to read ancient Hebrew.
Fair point.)
Heres why this matters: in Gods nameYahwehthe vowels
arent in the original text. The Hebrew Bible just reads, Y-H-W-H.
Four letters, thats all.
In scholarship they call this the tetragrammaton, and it was the
energy source used by Doc Brown for the flux capacitor.

Yahweh

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Im just kidding about that last part.

Tetragrammaton is a Greek term that means four-letter word
but not that kind of four-letter word.
YHWH is from the exact same root word as I am who I am, but
ehyeh is in the first person, and Yahweh is in the third person.13
Say them out loud right now, and youll notice the similarity.
So...
Ehyeh means I am.
Yahweh means he is.
Which is why...
When God says his name, its ehyeh.
But when we say Gods name, its Yahweh.
Make sense?
Now, Yahweh is incredibly hard to translate into English for a
couple of reasons. For one, we dont actually know what the vowels are because they were never written down. Almost all Hebrew
scholars think Yahweh is right, but honestly, its still a best guess.
But the main reason is that over time the Hebrews stopped saying
the name of God out loud. One of the Ten Commandments is,

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You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God.14 Over the
years, they grew so scared of accidentally breaking this command
that they just stopped saying his name altogether.
Instead, they would call him other names. A popular one was
simply hashem, the name. But the most common title was
adonai, a Hebrew word meaning Lord. In the ancient Near East,
thats what a servant would call his master, so they used that title
for God.
This is also where we get the name Jehovah. Anybody remember
that name for God? It was big in the 80s.
Jehovah is the vowels from adonai put into the consonants
of YHWH.
Like this...

Y H W H
YH WH
Yahweh

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(Note: Hebrew is a guttural language, so the ys sound like js and

the ws sound like vs, hence Jehovah instead of Yahowah. Think
Klingon, you Trekkies.)
Okay, were almost through the thick part. Stay with me!
Because of the Jewish switch to adonai, usually YHWH is translated into English as the Lord. This is how the vast majority of
translations write out Gods name, and so its what most followers
of Jesus call God. We hear it in prayers and songs and teachings
and booksits ubiquitous.
In my opinion, its a dangerous move that could make us miss
out on a key facet of how we relate to God. Why? Because the
Lord isnt a name; its a title, like the doctor or the judge or the
president. Calling God the Lord is like me calling Tammy the
wife. That would be weird. Why? Because Im in a close relationship with her, and thats not the language of intimacy.
What you call somebody says a lot about your relationship.
To my wife Im Love, but to the receptionist at the dentists office
Im Mr.Comer.
To my kids Im Dad, but to the clerk at Whole Foods Im sir.
Im also son/brother/friend/dude/hey you/pastor/reverend/
JM/andmy least favorite of all timeJohn-O! Each of these
names says something about the kind of relationship I have with
another person.

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My sisters name is Elizabeth. Shes this gorgeous, tall, modelesque blond who lives in Hollywood. Her name is regal, and its
fitting for her person. But I never call her Elizabeth. I call her by
her childhood nicknameBetes. No matter how old we get, Im
still the ornery older brother at heart. She hates the name Betes.
If she ever reads this book, I doubt Ill get a Christmas present for
the next five years. But Im her brother. An unwritten law of the
universe says I have the right to call her by any nickname I choose.
Why? Because Im in relationship with her. So I dont call her
Mrs.Mosser; I call her Betes. I call her by name.
In the same way, God wants to be called by his name, not a title.
Remember that line of poetry?
This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.15
I would argue that we need to get back to calling God by his
name. I think the gradual shift from calling God Yahweh to using
the title the Lord says something about the human condition.
For all our talk about a personal relationship with Jesus, theres a
part of us thats scared of intimacy with God. We see the fire and
smoke up the mountain, and we shrink back in fear.
Jesus took this even one step further. He taught us to call God
Fatherthe most intimate relational name there is. As one poet
so eloquently said, God waits to be wanted.16 Hes aching for a
relationship with you.

Yahweh

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Now, back to Moses question: mah shemo? What is the meaning

of your name?
Does God answer the question? Kind of, but not really. Moses
gets the nameYahwehbut he doesnt get the meaning or the
significance of Gods name until later in the story.
A few chapters later, Yahweh says to Moses: I am the Lord
[Yahweh]. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God
Almighty [El Shaddai], but by my name the Lord [Yahweh] I did not
make myself fully known to them.17
In other words, Yahweh only showed part of himself to Abraham
and his sons. This is Gods modus operandi in the Scriptures. He
doesnt give revelation all at once, but in bits and pieces, giving his
people time to absorb and grapple with who God is.18
Its not until Moses is on top of Mount Sinai that we get the full,
complete answer to his question about the meaning and significance of Gods name.19 There, in the terrifying cloud that was
Gods glory, we read that God proclaimed his name...
Yahweh
Yahweh
The compassionate and gracious God
Slow to anger

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Abounding in love and faithfulness

Showing mercy to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion
and sin
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the
children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third
and fourth generation.
(By the way, for those of you thinking, What is up with the last line
about God punishing kids? well get there later. Its so good...)
This moment of revelation on Mount Sinai where we learn Gods
nameits the moment in the Hebrew Bible. The rest of what we
call the Old Testament is just story after story of this God in action.

THREE: Jesus
The narrative arc of the Bible is anything but straight. It bends and
zigzags and makes wrong turns, but eventually the story all leads
to a dramatic climax: the coming of Jesus.
In his biography of Jesus, the New Testament writer John makes a
profound statement:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We
have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came
from the Father, full of grace and truth.20

Yahweh

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Its hard to see it in the English translation, but this language is

straight out of Exodus 34.
For example, the phrase made his dwelling among us is literally pitched his tabernacle among us. Thats a reference to the
tabernacle that Israel put up at the base of Mount Sinai.
Glory? Thats a reference to the cloud at the top of Mount Sinai.
And grace and truth is actually an odd reading of the Hebrew
phrase translated as love and faithfulness. (Well talk about
why later.)
Usually people read grace and truth and talk about how Jesus
was the perfect balance of grace and niceness and love mixed
with truth and backbone and the courage to say what needed to
be said.
Thats totally true.
Its just not remotely the point that John is making.
John is ripping all this language out of Exodustabernacle and
glory and love and faithfulnessas a way of retelling the Sinai
story around Jesus. Hes making the point that in Jesus, we see
the Creator Gods gloryhis presence and beautylike never
before. In Jesus, Yahweh becomes a human being.
Later in John, we get to eavesdrop on Jesus prayer to the Father:

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I have revealed your name to those you gave me... I have made
your name known to them.21
Remember, Gods name is a stand-in for his character.
Eugene Peterson translates the verse this way: I have spelled out
your character in detail.22
I love it.
In Jesus, we get a new, evocative, crystal-clear glimpse of what
God is actually like.
The early Christians were quick to pick up on the gravity of Jesus
claims to be the embodiment of God. In order to become a
Christian, there was a statement, a slogan, a creed that you had
to say out loud before you could be baptized:
Jesus is Lord.
People would die over this statement. Literally. Christians were
burned alive and thrown into the mouths of wild beasts in the
arena. This phrase had a gravitas to it.
Why?
Well, Lord is kyrios in Greek. For one, that was the title for
Caesar, which made the claim that Jesus is Lord tantamount to
treason. The Roman Empire already had a kyrios.

Yahweh

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But more importantly, for Jews, this was the Greek word that was
used to translated the Hebrew word Yahweh. So in saying that
Jesus is Lord, the first Christiansmost of whom were Jewish
were saying that Jesus was Yahweh in flesh and blood.
Thats a bold claim to make about an itinerant peasant teacher.
But we see this kind of blatant, provocative language all over the
writings of the New Testament. The first Christians were adamant that
Jesus is the bedrock for everything we believe to be true about God.
For years, I thought of Yahweh in the Old Testament as parallel
with the Father in the New. Like Jesus is a newcomer in the story.
Thats wrong, and dangerous. It leads to a twisted caricature, as if
the Father is the grumpy old warmonger in the Old Testament, and
Jesus is the son who went off to Berkeley and came home with
all sorts of radical ideas about grace and love and tolerance and
basically said, Come on, Dad, lets not kill everybody. How about
I die for them instead?
This is a gross misreading of the story the Scriptures tell.
Jesus is the long-awaited human coming of Yahweh, the God on
top of Sinai.

FOUR: Us
Whew...

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You still alive out there? If so, well done. That was a lot to take
in. Now, lets take a step back and talk about the staggering
implications this has for how we relate to God. Honestly, this was
life-changing for me.
For starters, this means that God is a person. By person, I dont
mean hes male or female or human.23 By person, I mean hes a
relational being. Not an impersonal energy force or a chapter in a
systematic theology textbook or a world religion. Hes a relational
being who wants to, well, relate. To people like you and me. He
wants to know and be known.
But knowing God isnt just knowing a bunch of facts about God.
Im all for theologyheck, its kind of what I do for a livingbut
God isnt a doctrine. He isnt a question on a multiple-choice exam
that you study to get right so you can go to heaven when you
die.24 Hes a person who wants to be in a relationship with you.
We hear the clich a personal relationship with Jesus a lot in
the church. But honestly, I dont think we have any clue just how
explosive this idea is.
Remember how Moses and God had conversations?
Later in the story, we read that God would speak to Moses face
to face, as one speaks to a friend.25
God has friends?
Yup.

Yahweh

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And Moses and God relate to each other like, well, friends.
Then we read a great story in which Moses vents to Yahweh about
how Yahweh has been telling him to lead Israel, but Israel is a
dysfunctional mess and Moses feels all alone.
So God says, My Presence will go with you.
Then Moses asks, Teach me your ways so I may know you and
continue to find favor with you.
And God essentially says, I will.
Then Moses gets even bolder and says, Show me your glory.
And God says, You, meon the mountain tomorrow.26
This is not how you would expect a conversation between the
Creator of the universe and a human being to go. It has a pliability
to it. A bend. A give and take.
It sounds like two friends talking. Almost as if Moses and God
are on equal footing. Of course, they arent on equal footing, and
thats what makes it so striking.
Theres another story in Exodus where Israel goes off the rails
and starts worshiping other gods. This, after Yahweh had just
saved them in the Red Sea and gave them food and water in
the middle of nowhereridiculous, extravagant love. And they
spit on it.

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As you can imagine, the God who is slow to anger finally gets
angry and tells Moses that hes going to destroy Israel and start
over with Moses, take it back to square one, reboot the entire
franchise. God is clearly upset.
The theologian Gerry Breshears says, This is God processing his
feelings with a human partner.27
God processing his feelings?
I love it.
This isnt the energy-in-the-universe or chapter-3-in-the-systematic-
theology-textbook God that a lot of us grew up with. This is a
person. A person with feelings. Yahweh is madunderstandably
and he makes the decision to wipe Israel off the map.
And what happens?
Moses talks him out of it.
He essentially tells Yahweh, If you do this, then all the other
nations will talk trash about you. You made a promise to lead your
people through the desert. Your name is at stake here.
Then we read, Yahweh relented and did not bring on the people
the disaster he had threatened.28
The word relented is naham in Hebrew. It can be translated as
Yahweh changed his mind, or even repented.

Yahweh

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Yahweh nahamed?
He changed his mind?
He repented?
Thats what it says.
Now, that doesnt mean God was in sin or doing anything wrong.
The word naham carries this idea of regret or remorse over a
decision. The idea isnt that God was off base, at all; its that God
was moved emotionally; he regretted his decision to judge Israel
so harshly, and so he changed his approach.
All of this leads to a vision of a God who responds. Who
is open to our ideas, dynamicinvolved in our lives, but not in
control in the automated, whats-going-to-happen-is-going-to-
happen-with-or-without-me kind of way.
God is more of a friend than a formula.
Most of religionincluding a lot of popular Christian religionis
about deciphering the formula to get the life we want from God.
Usually the formula looks something like this:
Morality + religious stuff sin = Gods blessing.
So, for example...

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Bible reading + church having sex with my girlfriend =

Gods blessing.
As if God was an algorithm for a computer software program that
we just have to plug the right numbers into andboom!out
comes our dream life.
But God doesnt work this way. If you treat God like a formula,
youll just end up mad and confused. With God, the math rarely
adds up. God is far more interactive and interesting.
But that said, there is a pattern we see all over the Bible:
If you _____ , then l will _____.
For example...
If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be
uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned
repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster
I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation
or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my
sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had
intended to do for it.29
You see the pattern? The if/then?
Notice how interactive this is. Theres a relational back-and-forth
that few of us have actually come to grips with.

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We speak, and God speaks.

We act, and God acts.
We pray, and God answers, but not always in the way we want.
We ask God to show mercy, and he nahams.
This isnt a formula. It doesnt always play out like this. But its a
way of being in relationship with God.
Yahweh isnt the unmoved mover of Aristotle; hes the relational,
dynamic God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who
responds. Who can be moved, influenced, who can change
his mind at a moments notice. And this isnt a lower view of
God; its a much higher view. The theologian Karl Barth called it
the holy mutability of God.30 He would be less of a God if he
couldnt change his intentions when he wants to, or be open to
new ideas from intelligent, creative beings hes in relationship
with.31
This is so simple, so easy to wrap our heads around, but hardly
any of us interact with God this way. We read a story about
Moses getting God to change his mind, and it sounds shocking
because its so far from our own experience. Most people just
explain it away: Well, it doesnt actually mean that God changed
his mindbecause thats just too much to handle.
Maybe because it feels irreverent. I agree. It does feel a little
irreverent. There are prayers in the Scripturesin the books

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Moses wrote and especially in Psalmswhere I cringe, half

expecting lightning to strike the person dead. But it doesnt. In
fact, God seems to love that kind of raw, uncut prayer, skirting the
line between blasphemy and desperate faith. Hes not nearly as
scared of honesty as we are.
Maybe because our theological system is adamant that God is
sovereign and in control and everything that happens is the will of
God, as if theres some invisible blueprint behind every event in our
lifegood or badsome secret script we live out, and we dont
dare ask God to deviate from it.32
Well talk more about this in the next chapter, but I deeply believe
this way of thinking about Gods involvement in our life is so far
from what the Scriptures teach. The future is not set in stone. The
prayers we pray and the decisions we make in the here and now
have a direct, line-of-sight effect on what doesor does not
happen down the line.
Because God responds.
But often we read these stories about Moses and David and
Jesus and Paul and we think,
That was for them, not for me.
As if the point of the Bible is to tell you how other people relate
to God.
But Jesus came and lived and died and rose from the grave to

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make the kind of relationship he and Moses had with Yahweh

available to everybody.
Right before his death, Jesus prayed to the Father, I have made
your name known to them, and will continue to make your name
known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and
that I myself may be in them.33
This is Jesus agenda for his followersthat you and I will know
Yahweh like he did. And to join Moses and the characters of the
Bible in friendship with God.
Think of how this could rewire how you pray.
A lot of people feel guilty because they dont enjoy prayer. Some
people dread it. Others just push through it because they know its
the right thing to do. Most of us avoid it.
Thats because most of us dont actually pray.
Prayer is what Moses did with God in the tent. What Jesus did
with the Father in Gethsemane. Its brutally honest, naked, and
vulnerable. Its when your deepest desires and fears and hopes
and dreams leak out of your mouth with no inhibition. Its when
you talk to God with the edit button in the off position and you feel
safe and heard and loved. Its the kind of relational exchange you
cant get enough of.
And our prayers make a difference. Most of us dont actually
believe that prayer changes reality. But it does.

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The philosopher Dallas Willard wrote, Gods response to our

prayers is not a charade. He does not pretend that he is answering our prayer when he is only doing what he was going to do anyway. Our requests really do make a difference in what God does or
does not do. The idea that everything would happen exactly as it
does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts
the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes
prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at
best. And of course God does not respond to this. You wouldnt
either.34
Prayer can move the hand of God. Prayer can get God to change
his mindthink about the gravity of that.
Prayer is when your life trajectory is going in the wrong direction,
so you dialogue with God and he responds and your life goes
another way.
This thing was going to happen, but now its not.
This other thing was not going to happen, but now it is.
Because I just had a conversation with God.
As the writer James put it, The prayer of a righteous person is
powerful and effective.35
Now, theres a lot of mystery here, plenty of unanswered questions. How exactly does Gods will interact with our will? The classic sovereignty versus free will debate. Honestly? I dont know.

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But Im sure of this: prayer is not just going through the motions. It
does something. Our prayers have the potential to alter the course
of history. And Gods action in history is, in some strange way,
contingent on our prayers.
My friend Skye Jethani quotes the philosopher Blaise Pascals line,
God has instituted prayer so as to confer upon His creatures the
dignity of being causes and interprets it like this:
We are not merely passive set pieces in a prearranged cosmic
drama, but we are active participants with God in the writing,
directing, design, and action that unfolds. Prayer, therefore, is
much more than asking God for this or that outcome. It is drawing
into communion with him and there taking up our privileged role
as his people. In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the
course of his world.36
Oh man, thats so good.
In prayer, we are invited to join him in directing the course of
his world.
From the beginning of human history, God, the Creator of everything, has been looking for friends, for free, intelligent, creative
partners to collaborate with on running the world.
Thats prayer.
If this take on prayer makes you nervous, if its too close to the
edge, if right now youre thinking, Who am I to come to God that

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way? then remember that when you come to God, you come in
Jesus name.
I assume youre familiar with that clichin Jesus name? For
the record, that was never supposed to be a tag line we drop at
the end of a prayer to get what we want. To pray in Jesus name
means two things.
First, it means to pray in line with his character, to pray for the kind
of stuff he wants to see happen in the world.
Pray for a new Range Rover or dream vacation to Hawaii, and you
may get it, but the odds are God will let you down.
Pray for healing, justice, the courage to stand up for your faith in
the corrosive soil of Western secularism, the kind of stuff Jesus is
all about? Well, keep your eyes open.
But secondly, and more importantly, to pray in Jesus name
means that whenever we pray, we have the same access to God
that Jesus does.
One New Testament scholar said it this way: To pray in Jesus
name... means that we enter into Jesus status in Gods favor,
and invoke Jesus standing with God.37
So for those of you thinking, I cant interact with God in this kind of
a back-and-forth way, like a friend or a coworker helping God build
out his world. Im no Moses, and Im definitely not Jesus!true,
that makes two of us. But if youre a follower of Jesus, then when

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you come before God, you come in Jesus name. You invoke his
status with God. You come, not as a beggar off the street, but as
a royal daughter or son of the Father.
And what you find waiting for you is Yahweh, the person, who
wants to relate to you.
And you dont even have to climb a mountain. All you have to do
is open your lips.

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GOD HAS A NAME

By John Mark Comer
Yes, this is a book about God - who he is, who hes not, and
the staggering implications of who we are as a result. But no,
this is not just another book about God.
God Has a Name is shaped around one incredibly important
paragraph in Exodus. In the well-known story of Moses
interacting with God on Mount Sinai, Moses asks to see Gods
glory. But what God does - and says - is surprising and
relevant for anyone who wants to understand God today.
Comers fresh voice, creative and contemporary examples,
powerful language, and deep respect for the scriptures open
up the Bible and the story of God to reveal not only his
character but how he interacts with us. And in the end, we
will know how to carry that name ourselves and represent
God in how we live.
For everyone who is trying to understand this God the Bible
talks about, the church teaches about, and preachers preach
about, this is the place to begin. Ground zero - where God
himself tells us who he really is.

Get Your Copy of God Has a Name!

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